In hindsight, I can't blame my dad for being confused. Nipper had on not only Kotex pads, but a weird system of elasticized belts. She had been kept inside each time she went into "heat" previously, and had reached the ripe age of 11 (77 in dog years) without having a litter. My dad thought that our dog was tangled in the elasticized belts.
I knew better. Dog ownership was much more cavalier in those days. I didn't pick up after our dog had a dump in the park or by the roadside, but neither did anybody else, so far as I could tell. I had seen our dog, Puck (of Pook's Hill), mount female dogs. I had seen the two dogs stuck afterwards, facing in opposite directions for a quarter hour, looking distinctly embarrassed and uncomfortable. Lots of people would crowd around, proposing throwing on hot or cold water. I asked them to wait while I called the Human Agency and got advice. The Human Society explained that male dogs got a lump in their penis that took a while to shrink, about 15 or 20 minutes.
Litters were astonishingly large --- 12 puppies in Nipper's case. Sure, the owners of the male dog might suggest some homes for the puppies, but the burden fell disproportionately on the owners of the female. I can't really blame Nipper's owners for keeping her in for 11 years, but I'm not surprised that she escaped.
So, I explained the facts of life to my dad: it's not elasticized belts; dogs just get stuck.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment